Bird Set Free | Natasha Romanoff ✓

Chapter Forty

Aquila Cadman tried in vain, to stretch her wings that were stuck tightly to her sides, only to meet the cold metal bars of the cage. 

She was a bird trapped in a cage, unable to even move. 

She was aware of her friends in the cells near her, but since her special earpiece had been taken from her, she couldn't communicate with any of them anyway. 

Aquila looked up slightly as the sound of one of the security doors opening filled the air.

"The Futurist, gentleman! The Futurist is here! He sees all! He knows what's best for you, whether you like it or not." Clint shouted as Aquila looked up to see Tony and Keira enter into the room. 

"Give me a break, Barton. I had no idea they'll put you here. Come on." Tony replied. 

"Yeah, well, you both knew they'd put us somewhere." Clint spat out.

"Yeah, but not some super-max floating ocean pokey. You know, this place is for maniacs. . . This is a place for. . ." Tony trailed off. 

"Criminals?" Clint said, standing up. "Criminals, Tony. Think that's the word you're looking for." Clint continued, eyeing Tony through the bars. "Right? That didn't used to mean me. Or Aquila. Or Sam, or Wanda. But here we are."

"Because you all broke the law."

"Yeah?"

"I didn't make you."

"La, la, la, la, la. . ." Clint said tuning out Tony. 

"You read it, you broke it."

"La, la, la, la, la, la. . ."

"Alright, you're all grown up, you got a wife and kids. I don't understand, why didn't you think about them before you chose the wrong side?"

"You gotta watch your back with this guy. There's a chance he's gonna break it."

"Hank Pym always said, you can never trust a Stark." Scott chimed in. 

"Who are you?" Tony asked.

"Come on, man."

"Oh, my god. What are they doing to you?" Keira asked, bending down in front of Aquila's cell, observing her in the cage that sat inside the cell. 

Aquila's golden eyes only stared back unblinking, she couldn't communicate anything anyway. 

"You don't deserve this, no matter what you did," Keira said softly. "I'm so sorry."

Aquila shook her head slightly as Tony also appeared in her vision. 

"They didn't even give you a chance to transform back," Tony muttered as Aquila narrowed her eyes at him. "Natasha wanted me to tell you that she's sorry." 

Aquila nodded slightly as the couple continued towards Sam who Aquila assumed they were here for in the first place. Surely, they wouldn't want to just visit their criminal friends. 

"How's Rhodes?" Sam asked. 

"They're flying him to Columbia Medical tomorrow. So. . . . finger's crossed." Tony said, watching as Sam just shook his head. "What do you need? They feed you yet?"

Despite not being able to see Sam's face, Aquila could almost tell that Sam had raised his eyebrows in disbelief at Tony's statement.

"You're the good cop now?"

"I'm just the guy who needs to know where Steve went."

"Well, you better go get a bad cop, because you're gonna have to go Mark Fuhrman on my ass to get information out of me."

"Oh, I just knocked the 'A' out of their 'AV'. We got about 30 seconds before they realize it's not their equipment." Tony said. "Just look. Because that is the fellow who was supposed to interrogate Barnes. Clearly, I made a mistake. Sam, I was wrong."

Aquila scoffed slightly, most likely quite a weird sight in her eagle form. 

"That's a first."

"Cap is definitely off the reservation but he's about to need all the help he can get. We don't know each other very well. You don't have to. . ."

"Hey, it's alright," Sam replied. "Look, I'll tell you. . . .but you have to go alone and as a friend."

"Easy."

The group of 'criminals' didn't have any more guests for a few more hours. Sam had given Stark and Keira enough information to hopefully find where Steve and Bucky had gone and Aquila hoped that it would go successfully. 

Aquila was drifting in and out of sleep, the immense pain she was feeling in her body from being in the cramped cage had only intensified as the hours passed. 

But relief quickly rushed through her body a few hours later, when she woke to the sound of a key rattling in the opening of her cell. 

Steve stood there, the key in his hand. He didn't waste a second after opening the door to her cell before striding forward to unlock the door of her cage, allowing Aquila to move for the first time in too long. 

Aquila waddled out of her cage and out of the cell, similarly to that of a penguin. She quickly transformed before grabbing tightly onto the bars of her cage as she nearly sent herself back to the ground again. 

She was incredibly weak from such a prolonged time in her other form without movement, but Steve and Sam quickly helped her out of the room. 

Aquila looked around to see everyone was out of their cells apart from Clint and Lang. Aquila didn't even need to listen to Steve's explanation to understand why they were staying behind. 

With Steve and Sam helping her out of the building until she managed to be able to do it herself, Aquila eventually made it out. 

A Quinjet was waiting for them, and the group quickly all got on, Steve wasting no time in getting them away from the floating prison. 

Aquila was still slightly unsteady on her feet but after seeing Natasha standing there, her arms outstretched, Aquila quickly made her way over to her favorite Redhead. 

"Hey, Quila," Nat said softly, their teeth knocking together slightly as Aquila kissed Natasha. 

"Hey," Aquila replied, pulling away.  "I'm so sorry."

"I'm sorry, too," Natasha replied. "But at least we can do stupid things together now."

Aquila grinned slightly. "I love you."

"I love you too."